books. Of those, at least 25 were
published between 1962, when he says he met Mary, and 1983, when
he first mentions her. Some of these books are month to month
chronicles e.g. High Priest. In none of the books I could find,
i.e. most of them, is Mary mentioned or even vaguely described.
This is improbable considering the vivid, unforgettable portrait
that Leary drew in 1983. This striking looking woman walks in
unannounced, mentions her powerful friends in Washington, and
later starts dumping out the CIA's secret operations to control
American elections to him. Leary, who mentioned many of those he
turned on throughout his books, and thanks those who believed in
him, deemed this unimportant. That is until the 20th anniversary
of JFK's death. (Which is when Rosenbaum wrote his ugly satire on
the Kennedy research community for Texas Monthly which in turn
got him a guest spot on Nightline.) This is also when Leary began
hooking up with Gordon Liddy, doing carnival-type debates across
college campuses, an act which managed to rehabilitate both of
them and put them both back in the public eye.
There is another problem with Leary's book: the Phil Graham
anecdote. In his book, Leary has Mary tell him that the cat was
out the bag as far as her and JFK were concerned. The reason was
that a well-known friend of hers had blabbed about them in
public. This is an apparent reference to Post owner Phil Graham's
outburst at a convention in Phoenix, Arizona in 1963. This famous
incident (which preceded his later alleged mental breakdown)
included - according to Leary - a reference to Kennedy and Mary
Meyer. The story of Graham's attendance at this convention and
what he did a